Editorial: School board members need a summer course in civics

Coinciding with the arrival of summer is what used to be called “summer school.”

Students who performed poorly during the regular year were once sentenced to spend the heat of summer in rooms without the benefit of air conditioning, while friends vacationed or earned spending money.

Students understood it was as much a punitive assignment as an educational opportunity.

Today it's different and teens increasingly choose summer classes, to get a jump on college or to learn skills and material that didn't fit into their regular schedule.

For the former version of summer school, we nominate members of the New Jersey School Boards Association.

Membership in the NJSBA is mandatory for every school board. That’s a quite a feat on the part of NJSBA because, although it provides many valuable services to local school boards, it is also a powerful lobbying agency.

That’s something to keep in mind whenever the advice it dispenses is quoted. Often, it is guided by self-interest, and the perceived self-interests of local school boards.

We were reminded of that recently when Flemington Council President Brian Swingle sought a conversation with members of the Flemington-Raritan school board. He wanted to talk about a school policy.

But, even though this happened at a public meeting, he was told board members were forbidden by board policy from responding to questions during meetings. Board member Alan Brewer was so offended by this policy that he walked out.

Brewer did the honorable thing.

Flemington Council has since passed a resolution asking the school board to change its policy.

To be fair to the Flem-Rar board, it is not alone in embracing this "rule." Urging the local boards on is NJSBA which, in response to an inquiry from a Democrat reporter, actually proclaimed, “We are not aware of any law or regulation stating whether or how board members should or should not respond to questions from the public.”

After all, the group believes, the purpose of public comment is for board members to “hear what the public has to say,” not for members of the public to hear from the people they elected to represent them.

Apparently, communication isn’t the goal because — as important as listening is — it’s still only half of the equation.

During the summer school classes we’d like NJSBA members who adhere to this "seen-but-not-heard" policy to spend some time brushing up on the Constitution and the First Amendment. They might want to bring some school board attorneys with them.

It forbids any law “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

We can’t imagine a more suitable venue for exercising such freedom than a school board meeting. That’s especially so in New Jersey, where local rule is cherished and school taxes comprise the lion’s share of our highest-in-the-nation residential property tax bills.

The NJSBA might also want to study the structure of our governmental system. Contrary to many people’s perception, we’re not really a democracy; the U.S. is a democratic republic. Rather than have every voter head to the polls to vote on every issue, we elect representatives to do that for us. That’s why we have Congress, state legislatures and … school boards.

How can we know what they’re doing, and why, if they won’t respond to us? Rep. Leonard Lance answers questions posed to him; he doesn’t refer inquiries to the Speaker of the House, or pretend that his only job is to listen.

Perhaps some school board members are uncomfortable speaking in public. That’s understandable, it’s a common fear. For those adult summer students, a course could include a field trip to a public meeting where they would ask questions of public officials and seek answers.

They're easy enough to find, taking place most evenings of the month in one or another Hunterdon municipality.

We don’t entirely blame school board members for this smug policy. And we must point out that there are school boards that practice two-way communication.

Some fault rests with parents, and taxpayers, who don’t attend more public meetings, won't ask tough questions, and don’t vote out officials who hide in plain sight at “public” meetings that are not really public at all.